RJ Turner, a 1998 communications graduate, has started what could be a creative, growing tradition of giving at Saint Joseph’s. As the marketing director of Plantation Products, LLC in Mansfield, Mass., Turner donated more than 80 packets of USDA-certified organic seeds to Pearson’s Town Farm to help support a community garden.
For Turner, this donation represents not only a method of utilizing the tools at hand from his job, but also an interesting approach to the “ways that we, as alumni, can give back to the school,” he says. “Being able to help encourage people to use their harvests to put food on the table while saving money, but while also donating the excess to Catherine’s Cupboard … is such a great benefit on many levels. … Just like it reads on the SJC website, ‘Pave the way and pass it forward.’”
Farm manager Michial Russell looks to this donation as the beginning of something great for the College and the greater community. “It’s everything one would need to start a wonderful garden,” Russell says, “and to keep it going for a long time.” Turner’s donation included seeds of more than 18 different varieties. “We have vegetables like spinach, radishes and tomatoes, herbs, and peat pots to get started, organic seed starting mix…. The potential here is to have a great impact to give back to the community.”
